Article
'Are You Planting Trees or Are You Planting People?': Squatter Resistance and International Development in the Making of a Kenyan Postcolonial Political Order (C. 1963-78)
The Journal of African History
(2015)
Abstract
This article examines squatter resistance to a World Bank-funded forest and paper factory project. The article illustrates how diverse actors came together at the sites of rural development projects in early postcolonial Kenya. It focuses on the relationship between the rural squatters who resisted the project and the political elites who intervened, particularly President Kenyatta. Together, these two groups not only negotiated the reformulation of a major international development program, but they also worked out broader questions about political authority and political culture. In negotiating development, rural actors and political elites decided how resources would be distributed and they entered into new patronage-based relationships, processes integral to the making of the postcolonial political order.
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 3, 2015
DOI
10.1017/S0021853714000668
Citation Information
Kara Moskowitz. "'Are You Planting Trees or Are You Planting People?': Squatter Resistance and International Development in the Making of a Kenyan Postcolonial Political Order (C. 1963-78)" The Journal of African History Vol. 56 Iss. 1 (2015) p. 99 - 118 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kara-moskowitz/2/